Blindness

Robin Clifford

Laura Clifford

It is a normal day in the big city until one man, driving
his car, suddenly goes blind. The doctors cannot find a problem and call
for more tests. Then, another person succumbs to the whiteness, then another,
then another until the government declares an epidemic and forces the quarantine
of anyone infected. However, one of the inmates (Julianne Moore), the wife
of one of the victims (Mark Ruffalo), has not lost her sight and she pretends
to suffer from the "Blindness."

Robin:
Director Fernando Meirelles and scripter Don McKellar, adapting Jose Saramago's
novel, tells a modern parable about the disintegration of society. As the
'white sickness' claims more and more victims, the quarantine wards in an
old asylum begin to fill up. Those with sight on the outside are fast abandoning
the care of the victims, leaving the blind to fend for themselves. Man being
man, the inmates are divided between the compassionate and the power hungry
greedy.

The story, although a little to long for the material, is a first-rate thriller
that builds slowly as sightlessness strikes the first victim and he seeks
help. Things accelerate as the next victims are hit by the sickness and the
seeds of panic are sown as their numbers rapidly increase. The fear of the
sighted falling prey to the blinding infection forces the government to uphold
the strict isolation policy ­ with deadly force if necessaary. And it
becomes necessary.

The chaos and breakdown in society within the blind victims' prison culminates
in a battle between good and bad that ends in a devastating fire. The calamity
frees Moore and the small group first joined by their disease into the world
once again. What they find is a repeat of the chaos and breakdown they saw
within their prison but at a far bigger scale.

Meirelles and company have created a stylish, scary chronicle of the disintegration
of society that is an allegory of the AIDS crisis ­ a diseease descends
upon us and it cannot be stopped. Throw in blindness as the epidemic and
the affliction causes widespread panic. Or, is it the panic that causes the
spreading blindness? The overwhelming despair of the plight is palpable,
as is the tiny glimmer of hope in the end.

The huge cast is led with convincing nuance by Julianne Moore as the Doctor's
Wife and only one with sight. Her initial desire is to help her husband but
circumstance places awesome responsibility and she must care for many. Moore
shows the physical and psychological strain that steadily builds as things
go spiraling down. Mark Ruffalo as the Doctor, Alice Braga as the Woman with
the Dark Glasses, Danny Glover as the Man with the Black Eye Patch, Don McKellar
as the Thief, Yusuke Iseya as the First Blind Man and Gael Garcia as the
tyrannical King of Ward Three lead the unsighted multitudes, giving individuality
and dimension to their characters.

Techs are top notch. Cesar Charlones stylized lensing uses blinding flashes
of white to convey the rapid spread of the disease. Soft, out of focus camera
work visibly shows the affliction with affective fright. Editing (Daniel
Rezende), production design (Deirdre Bowen and Susie Figgis), original music
(Marco Antonio Guimaraes), art direction (Joshua de Cartier) and the rest
of the capable crew do a fine job is showing man's descent into hell. A bit
of judicial tightening was needed, is my only complaint.

"Blindness" is a thriller, horror yarn and character study that brings to
my mind "The Lord of the Flies" with its feel of a societal shipwreck that
divides the world into its most primitive elements of good against evil.
I give it a B+.

Laura:
Fernando Meirelles' tautly directed film depicting the literal collapse of
civilization is a harrowing reflection looking into the mirror of current
times. Brilliant production design compliments the film with its 'warning'
flashes of white (a coat, headlights)
in the hours before catastrophy strikes and a quick descent into hell once
it does in this allegory of a people felled by ignorance and greed saved
by sacrifice and a leader with vision. B+